1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a switch mechanism operable in three different directions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some conventional pocket or portable telephones use a switch mechanism which can be operated by rotating and pressing and thus serves as one controller. This type of switch mechanism used in such a portable telephone has a control member supported rotatably on a spindle perpendicular to a flat base and linearly movably in relation to the base. The control member is of a circular thin-plate structure designed to compact so as not to esthetically spoil the appearance of the telephone body.
The pocket telephone having such a switch mechanism is adapted to retrieve, by rotating the control member, a desired one of a plurality of telephone numbers stored in a memory incorporated in the telephone body, and transmit the retrieved telephone number by pressing the control member.
Some recently available pocket telephones have many functions including, in addition to the telephoning function, functions of composing a short sentence, transmitting it via electronic mail (E-mail) and receiving such a sentence via E-mail. As the pocket telephone is designed to have an increased number of functions, it should be provided with a correspondingly increased number of function control keys for performing the functions. The functions are to be performed by operating many combinations each of a plurality of control keys including the function control keys and dial keys. Therefore, because of the increased number of functions, the multi-functional pocket telephone cannot be designed compact and operated easily. Also, if the pocket telephone is designed to perform a function by operating a combination of a plurality of control keys, the operation itself is complicated. Anyway, the conventional multi-functional pocket telephones have no easy operability.
Also, since the control member used in the switch mechanism of the pocket telephone is of the circular thin-plate structure, it is not easy to operate.